NASA is seeking solutions for a way to raise the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory despite the spacecraft being marked for termination after FY2026 under the agency's budget proposal.

The possible impending demise of the spacecraft, coupled with faster-than-expected orbital decay due to additional atmospheric drag caused by solar activity, makes Swift an ideal candidate for the potential project .

NASA has selected two American companies – Cambrian Works of Reston, Virginia, and Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona – to develop concept design studies for a possible orbit boost. That said, the agency doesn't have firm plans for a reboost and could still allow the spacecraft to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, "as many satellites do at the end of their lifetimes."

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